High blood pressure linked to earlier death among African-American breast cancer patients

A study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco has shown that hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a predictor of mortality among breast cancer patients, especially those who are African-American, and that hypertension accounts for approximately 30 percent of the survival disparity between African-American and white breast cancer patients.

According to the study's lead author, UCSF epidemiologist Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, who also is an affiliate with the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, this is the first study to link cancer mortality with hypertension, and specifically the first to show that hypertension is a predictor of mortality among African-American breast cancer patients.

School of Medicine Fellow Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, became the 2007 recipient of the American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) and the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation (CRPF) Fellowship, and the New Investigator Award for the 31st Annual ASPO Meeting.

"White women are more likely to get breast cancer, but African-American women are more likely to die from it," said Braithwaite. "We were trying to shed light on the factors that contribute to disparities in survival between the two groups." The study included 416 African-American and 838 white women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1973 and 1986, following them through 1999. All of the women in the study were patients at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. The patients were all residents of the San Francisco Bay Area and had a known stage of disease and course of cancer treatment. Kaiser Permanente members are representative of the general population for many ethnic, demographic and socioeconomic categories, except for the very high and very low ends of the economic spectrum, according to the study.

The researchers used data from patient records, which they considered more reliable than data self-reported by patients. Kaiser Permanente's division of research has long collaborated with UCSF on breast cancer research.

The study found that African-American breast cancer patients had a higher overall crude mortality, or death from all causes, than whites during the study period: 39.7 percent versus 33.3 percent respectively over a mean follow-up of nine years.

When age, race, tumor characteristics, and breast cancer treatment were controlled, hypertension accounted for 30 percent of the racial disparity in mortality, study findings showed.

"High blood pressure led to poorer outcomes for African-American patients than for their white counterparts," said Braithwaite. "Even if you statistically control for tumor characteristics and breast cancer treatments—chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and hormone treatment—the adverse effect of hypertension in African-American women means a greater likelihood of death."

Hypertension is not part of the Charlson Comorbidity Index, a widely-used generic tool that provides survival estimates for patients using a range of co-existing conditions or so-called comorbidities. If the results of this study are validated in more contemporary patient populations, the research suggests that hypertension should be included in this Index because of its high predictive value for outcomes, said Braithwaite.

According to study senior author Laura Esserman, MD, director, Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center; co-leader, Breast Oncology Program, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; and part of the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, comorbidities have a huge influence on life expectancy and therefore influence treatment decisions for breast cancer. "We started out by trying to determine which comorbidities should be assessed for all patients routinely, and discovered that hypertension in African-Americans is associated with higher mortality from breast cancer," she said.

In addition, this information may provide clues to the cause of higher mortality in African American women with breast cancer, Esserman said.

"The message is that hypertension is a big deal. It affects African-Americans more than other ethnic groups, and it affects their survival overall. Better management of hypertension has potential to improve patient outcomes, particularly among African-American breast cancer patients," Braithwaite concluded. ###

The results are published in the March 2009 print edition of the International Journal of Cancer and appear online at www3.interscience.wiley.com/fulltext/.

Co-authors of the study with Braithwaite and Esserman are Jeff Belkora, PhD; Dan Moore, PhD, and Robert Hiatt, MD, PhD, all of UCSF; C. Martin Tammemagi, PhD, Brock University, Ontario, Canada; Elissa Ozanne, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Dee West, PhD, Northern California Cancer Center, Fremont, Calif.; William Satariano, PhD, UC-Berkeley; and Michael Liebman, PhD, Windber Research Institute, Windber, Penn.

The study was funded by the Windber Research Institute; Kaiser Permanente's Community Benefit Program and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute; and U.S. Department of Defense, Center of Excellence in Breast Cancer Care, principal investigator Laura Esserman.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For further information, visit www.ucsf.edu.

The Kaiser Permanente division of research conducts, publishes, and disseminates epidemiologic and health services research to improve the health and medical care of Kaiser Permanente members and the society at large. It seeks to understand the determinants of illness and well-being and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Currently, DOR's 400-plus staff is working on more than 250 epidemiological and health services research projects.

Contact: Kirsten Michener kmichener@pubaff.ucsf.edu 415-476-2557 University of California - San Francisco

Xenophobia, for men only

Very few people fear dandelions. Or even dangerous things - like Hummers. We may object to outsized automobiles on principle, but the mere sight of them doesn't make us tremble and sweat and run away. On the other hand, even toddlers show an automatic and powerful fear of snakes, including harmless ones.

That's because of eons of evolution among both dangerous and benign things. There is probably no snake phobia programmed into our genetic code, but we do have an evolved mental readiness to be fearful of certain things in our world. Does this cognitive readiness influence our relationships with other people? Psychologists have been studying this question, and the preliminary answer is yes. In a new study, Michigan State psychologist Carlos David Navarrete used mild shocks to make black and white men and women fearful other black and white men and women. That is, white men were conditioned to be fearful of black men and white men as well as black women and white women, and so forth with the others. Then Navarrete observed to see if these fears lasted or not.

Carlos David Navarrete, received his Ph.D. in 2004 in Biological Anthropology from UCLA. He held postdoctoral positions in psychology at UCLA and at Harvard and is currently an assistant professor in social psychology at Michigan State University. His research on the psychology of prejudice integrates theory and methods from across several disciplines, including social psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology.

The findings, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, were intriguing and unexpected. It's known that people are more fearful of "out-groups" - that is, people who are different from them, and this fear of "the other" has been clearly demonstrated with race. But Navarrete found that volunteers' most persistent fears were reserved for men - that is, male members of the out-group. So white men and women feared black men, and black men and women feared white men; all the other lab-induced fears, including any conditioned fear of women diminished. Navarrete ran a number of other tests to clarify the results. He tested for blatant racism (Example: "Generally, blacks are not as smart as whites") and for more subtle, unconscious racism. He also gathered histories of the volunteers' interracial contact- friendships, colleagues, romantic involvements. It was only these histories that mattered: Those with close relationships outside their own race had less persistent fears than did those with little interracial experience.

Why would gender influence these ingrained fears as much as race? It may be that men were more often the aggressors over evolutionary time, so that male faces became a potent cue for danger. So xenophobia is not an equal-opportunity emotion. ###

For more information about this study, please contact: Carlos David Navarrete (cdn@msu.edu) Wray Herbert discusses this study in his blog, We're Only Human... (www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman/)

Contact: Barbara Isanski bisanski@psychologicalscience.org WEB: Association for Psychological Science

Building trust, increasing awareness among minorities

CAREFREE, A.Z. - As science continues to show an increasing lack of access and poor outcomes among minority patients with cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research is working toward understanding the fundamental issues of trust and awareness among these populations. At the Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Carefree, Arizona, the AACR will host a teleconference that highlights important strides in this area.

"As we continue to move forward with our scientific knowledge and medical treatments, we also need to understand if the potential benefits of what we are learning are being communicated effectively to those most at risk," said panel moderator Cheryl Willman, M.D., director and CEO of the University of New Mexico Cancer Research & Treatment Center and co-chair of the conference. "At best, the results are mixed."

Cheryl L. Willman, M.D. Full Member, Hematologic Malignancies Research Program. Director & CEO UNM Cancer Center. Professor of Pathology and Medicine, The Maurice and Marguerite Liberman Chair in Cancer Research Practice Location: Pathology - BMSB Rm 337. Education: Fellowship: UNM School of Medicine (Jul 1985), Specialty in Pathology Internship AND Residency Combined: UNM School of Medicine (Jul 1984). Specialty in Anatomical & Clinical Pathology, Medical School: Mayo Medical School (Jul 1981). Board Certifications: Am Bd Pathology (Sub: Anatomical) : (Jan 1986). Specialties: Pathology

#B76. Examining medical mistrust and breast cancer screening behaviors among African-American, Latina and Arab-American Women At Michigan State University, panel member Karen Patricia Williams, Ph.D., an assistant professor, found that higher levels of medical mistrust among minority women led to late screening for breast cancer. "African-American women had the highest levels of mistrust, but most of the women studied in the other groups were also clustered around strongly agreeing or agreeing with the statement that caution was recommended in dealing with health care organizations," Williams said. Nearly half (49 percent) of women agreed with the statement, "patients have sometimes been deceived or misled by health care organizations." Thirty-nine percent of African-American women did not trust health care organizations to keep their information private, a finding echoed by 15 percent of Latina women and 9 percent of Arab-American women. This lack of trust led to a lower screening rate. Among the women who had never received a clinical breast exam, 44 percent agreed that "health care organizations have sometimes done harmful experiments without our knowledge." Among the women who had not received a clinical breast exam in the past 12 months, 64 percent said they doubted the ability of their health care provider.

Williams said that the findings in Arab and Latina women point out the flaw in blaming all mistrust on the infamous Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.

"Intellectuals in medicine like to link all issues of mistrust to that study because it lets us off the hook for anything that might be happening today," said Williams. "This study shows that even groups without that history are showing a level of mistrust, so the problems must be more systemic than that."

#PR-6. Recruiting diverse patients to therapeutic trials: a comparison of three clinical settings

At the University of California San Francisco, Daniel Dohan, Ph.D., associate professor of Health Policy and Social Medicine, is trying to determine the most effective way to recruit minority patients into clinical trials.

The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 mandates inclusion of minorities in clinical research, but actual recruitment has been problematic.

"Previous research has established that minorities often feel discriminated against, but we wanted to look at this issue from the clinicians' perspective," said Dohan. "What we found is that the incentives that are in place for clinicians are not effective."

Dohan and colleagues studied 10 oncology clinics in three different health care delivery settings: academic medical centers, community-based private practices and public safety-net clinics.

Minority recruitment was not well supported in any setting. In the academic and private practice setting, the culture supported minority recruitment, but there was no real incentive to recruit minorities. In the public setting, providers were motivated by a sense of justice to enroll, but the organizational structure was not available.

"In different clinics, different issues matter, so there is no one size fits all solution," said Dohan. "For example, in a public clinic, they may have translators, but not translators that are equipped to cross cultural barriers in clinical trials."

In private practice and academic settings, clinicians are often rewarded for recruiting patients into clinical trials, but they are not rewarded more for recruiting harder to reach minority patients.

"In a private practice where you have to watch the bottom line, the likelihood is that most of the recruitment is going to pharmaceutical trials, which tend to provide more incentive and do not necessarily require minority recruitment," said Dohan.

#B77. Cancer screening in older South Asian immigrants in United States

New data among South Asian immigrants confirms that cancer screening rates are low largely due a lack of knowledge about available services and the benefits of screening.

Abhijit S. Prabhughate, a doctoral candidate at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at UIC in Chicago, said more research is needed to understand the cultural sensitivities in this population.

"South Asian-Americans are an understudied group. More than 40 percent of the South Asian immigrants in our study did not have health insurance and little is known about their risk," said Prabhughate.

Of 331 total surveyed people, 84 percent were born in India and 14 percent were born in Pakistan. Although 57 percent of them had lived in the United States for a decade or more, only 65 percent had a regular family doctor.

These immigrants were likely to not be screened for breast cancer for the following reasons: not wanting to know if one had cancer, family not wanting the individual to get tested, embarrassment, fear of losing job, language difficulties, and not knowing where to get tested.

They were more likely to be screened if the family or friends encouraged it, or if their insurance paid for it.

#B75. HPV knowledge, attitudes and cultural beliefs among Hispanic men and women living on the Texas-Mexico border

A new study on knowledge, attitudes and cultural responses to the human papillomavirus among Hispanics found that both men and women had low levels of knowledge, significant misunderstandings, and cultural beliefs about HPV that may need to be addressed to decrease the risk of cervical cancer among this population.

Maria E. Fernandez, Ph.D., assistant professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, conducted five focus groups in Brownsville, Texas, that included 30 Hispanic women and 11 Hispanic men. Women had a mean age of 41.3 years and men had a mean age of 38.8 years.

Researchers found that participants had little understanding about HPV and its role in cancer. Women believed that a diagnosis of HPV was a diagnosis of cancer and had fatalistic beliefs about the outcome of cancer. Women also thought that they would be reluctant to disclose their HPV positive status to their partners because they believed men would accuse them of infidelity. Men, too, initially attributed their partners' diagnosis of HPV to infidelity. Nevertheless, after a brief explanation about HPV etiology and transmission, men and women began to understand the ambiguity related to an HPV infection and believed that partners would generally support women as they sought health care for the infection."The results of this study suggest that understanding Hispanics' cultural norms and values concerning disease, sexuality and gender is essential to the design and implementation of successful interventions for the prevention and treatment of HPV and cervical cancer," said Fernandez. ###

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes more than 28,000 basic, translational and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and 80 other countries.

The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment and patient care.

The AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The AACR's most recent publication and its sixth major journal, Cancer Prevention Research, is dedicated exclusively to cancer prevention, from preclinical research to clinical trials. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors and their families, patient advocates, physicians and scientists. CR provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship and advocacy.

Teleconference Dial In: (888) 282-7404

Contact: Jeremy Moore Jeremy.moore@aacr.org 267-646-0557 American Association for Cancer Research

All prejudice isn't created equal; whites distribute it unequally to minorities

The Declaration of Independence may proclaim that all men are created equal, but American whites tend to distribute their prejudice unequally toward certain members of minority groups, according to new research.

A series of six studies conducted by University of Washington and Michigan State University psychologists shows that whites react more negatively to racial minority individuals who strongly identify with their racial group than to racial minority individuals who weakly identify with their group.

The research, published in the current issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, provides an explanation for why some Blacks report personally experiencing more prejudice than others.

Cheryl R. Kaiser, Department of Psychology. Box 351525. University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195. U.S.A. Home Page Phone: (206) 616-1435.

"Research has shown that the more minorities identify with their group, the more prejudice they report experiencing," said Kaiser. "Most research has explained this finding by focusing on factors within minorities that make some individuals more susceptible to perceiving prejudice than others. Our studies provide an alternative explanation by showing that whites react more negatively toward strongly identified minorities than weakly identified ones." The researchers believe strongly identified minorities are not paranoid in claiming they experience increased levels of prejudice and weakly identified minorities are not being self-deceptive when they report experiencing low levels of prejudice,

said Cheryl Kaiser, a UW assistant psychology professor and lead author of the paper. Instead, they just may simply be reporting on reality as they experience it.

"Take a situation where a person is ambiguously rejected for a new job," she said. "A person with a strong minority identification might wonder if the rejection was due to prejudice while one with a weak minority identification might not. If you experience more prejudice you expect more prejudice. These things work in tandem and feed each other."

Kaiser and her colleague recruited nearly 400 college students for the six studies that measured whites' attitudes toward Blacks and Latinos. They also were surveyed on their general attitudes about Blacks or Latinos, depending on the study. In the studies, minorities were either described as being strongly identified (where their group was very important and a central aspect of their self) or weakly identified (where their group was less important and not at the core of their self).

She said individuals typically want to be around others who share their values and exclude people who don't share those values or world views. The research indicated that whites perceived strongly identified minorities as less likely to share similar worldviews with them relative to weakly identified minorities.

"We are not arguing that minorities should not identify with their group," said Kaiser. "Such identification can be important and provides meaning, self worth and identity.

"Some research about prejudice has tended to lump members of minorities into homogenous groups. But there is a lot of heterogeneity. People differ in looks, language ability, attitudes and many other ways, but we tend not to pay attention to these factors. That's why it is important to identify those subsets in groups, why people react to them and what are the active ingredients of prejudice. Whites need to understand that they distribute prejudice unevenly and target those who strongly self-identify as being Black." ###

Jennifer Pratt-Hyatt, a doctoral student at Michigan State is the co-author of the paper. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the UW's Royalty Research Fund.

For more information, contact Kaiser at 206-616-1435 or ckaiser@u.washington.edu

Contact: Joel Schwarz joels@u.washington.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington

The 2 worlds of kids' morals

Study investigates race, gender and morality among children in the real and virtual worlds

Children's moral behavior and attitudes in the real world largely carry over to the virtual world of computers, the Internet, video games and cell phones. Interestingly, there are marked gender and race differences in the way children rate morally questionable virtual behaviors, according to Professor Linda Jackson and her team from Michigan State University in the US. Their research (1) is the first systematic investigation of the effects of gender and race on children's beliefs about moral behavior, both in the virtual world and the real world, and the relationship between the two. The study was published online in Springer's journal, Sex Roles.

Linda Jackson, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824. U.S.A.

Jackson and her team asked 515 12-year-old children (one-third African American, two-thirds Caucasian American) to fill in a written questionnaire looking at their moral behaviors and attitudes in the real world, and their view of morally questionable behavior in the virtual world. Measures of moral behavior in the real world included whether or not children had lied to parents and/or teachers, whether they had ever cheated, and whether they had ever bullied someone. Examples of morally questionable behavior in the virtual world were sending emails with threats, using sexually explicit or violent language in chat rooms and/or in text messages, hacking computers, and violence in video games.

Overall, African American children were more caring and more flexible about rules when personal goals were at stake than Caucasian American children. More specifically, Caucasian American girls and African American boys and girls viewed morality in the real world from the perspective of the individual's well-being. In contrast, Caucasian American boys' morality in the real world was more rule-based.

When it came to rating virtual behaviors, African American children were more likely than Caucasian American children to find acceptable virtual behaviors that result in real-world harm, for example emailing friends answers in advance of tests or sending text messages during class. The African American children were also more likely to find viewing online pornography acceptable.

For all groups, morality in the real world was related to morality in the virtual world. In other words, the more important good moral character in the real world was, the less acceptable morally questionable virtual behaviors were. There were however some race differences. African American children found some virtual behaviors that might advance individual goals in the real world more acceptable than did Caucasian American children. In contrast, the morality of Caucasian American boys, and to a lesser extent girls, was more rule-based in the virtual world.

The frequency of exposure to information technology also had an effect. The more children used the Internet, the more they found invasion of privacy online, videogame violence and online pornography acceptable.

The authors conclude that: "Educational interventions that are culturally sensitive need to be developed to assure that all children, regardless of race or gender, understand that certain virtual behaviors are unacceptable and in fact may be psychologically harmful, such as video game violence, or physically dangerous, like contacting strangers online." ###

Reference
1. Jackson LA et al (2009). Gender, race and morality in the virtual world and its relationship to morality in the real world. Sex Roles DOI 10.1007/s11199-009-9589-5

Contact: Joan Robinson joan.robinson@springer.com 49-622-148-78130 Springer

Sweetened beverage consumption increases in the US

Over the past two decades, the number of adults consuming sugar-sweetened beverages such as soft drinks, fruit drinks and punches has increased dramatically, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers examined changes over the past two decades in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption based on nationally representative survey data, and found that sugar-sweetened beverages comprise a significant source of total daily beverage intake and are the largest source of beverage calories consumed daily. Their results are published in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

“More adults are drinking sugar-sweetened beverages and, among those drinkers, consumption has increased,” said Sara N. Bleich, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor with the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management.

Sara N. Bleich, My research aims to reduce the escalation of obesity and its related diseases by exploring important research questions related to the intersection between public policy and obesity prevention/control. Most of my research has focused on understanding global trends in adult obesity, obesity-related risk communication, access to health care services for individuals with obesity-related conditions and trends in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. Going forward, I am particularly interested in examining disparities in practice patterns of obesity care and novel environmental strategies designed to reduce caloric consumption or increase physical activity.

“From 1988 to 2004, the percentage of sugar-sweetened beverage drinkers increased five percent. Per capita consumption of energy from sugar-sweetened beverages increased 46 kilocalories (kcal) per day, and daily sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among drinkers increased 6 ounces per day.” The study also examined trends in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by age, race/ethnicity and weight loss intention. Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption was highest among young adults (231-289 kcal/day), who consumed roughly 20 percent of their sugar-sweetened beverage calories at work, and lowest among the elderly (68-83 kcal/day). Among race/ethnicity groups, the percentage of sugar-sweetened beverage drinkers and per capita consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was highest among blacks followed by Mexican Americans. Overweight/obese adults who were trying to lose weight were less likely to drink sugar-sweetened beverages compared to those who were not, but they still consumed a considerable amount from 1999 to 2004 (278 kcal/day). Using dietary data collected in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2004), researchers examined national trends in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption (percentage of drinkers, amount consumed, consumption location and type of beverage) among U.S. adults.

Bleich, along with colleagues, identified six mutually exclusive beverage categories: sugar-sweetened beverages (soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks and punches, low-calorie drinks, sweetened tea, and other sweetened beverages), 100 percent juice, diet beverages, milk, coffee or tea, and alcohol.

Earlier studies have linked consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to the obesity epidemic, which affects two-thirds of adults and increases the risk for adverse health conditions such as type 2 diabetes. Adults are considered to be overweight if their body mass index is 25 or higher, and obese, if 30 or higher.

“Although this analysis does not attempt to estimate the effect of sugar-sweetened beverage intake on obesity incidence, a number of studies have linked sugar-sweetened beverage consumption to obesity and type 2 diabetes,” said Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, author and associate professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Human Nutrition. “Based on these nationally representative surveys, our study found higher sugar-sweetened beverage consumption also happened to be among populations at greater risk for obesity. There are few signs of improvement over the past decade and the situation seems to become worse among young adults aged 20 to 44.”

According to Bleich and colleagues, efforts to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption may be an important strategy for reducing empty calorie intake in the adult diet in the United States.

“Increasing Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Among US Adults: 1988-1994 to 1999-2004” was written by Sara N. Bleich, Y. Claire Wang, Youfa Wang, and Steven L. Gortmaker.

The researchers were supported in part by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, grant 57891.

Media contact for Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Natalie Wood-Wright at 410-614-6029 or nwoodwri@jhsph.edu. WEB: 410-614-6029 Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

PSA levels accurately predict prostate cancer risk in African-American men

PHILADELPHIA – PSA levels appear to be more predictive of three year prostate cancer risk in African-American men compared with Caucasian men with a family history of prostate cancer, according to a paper published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"It was previously thought that PSA levels were just naturally higher in African-American men, suggesting a need to possibly adjust the threshold upward before recommending a biopsy," said Veda Giri, M.D., director of the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Giri and colleagues at the University of Chicago observed 646 high-risk men, of whom 63 percent were African-American, in the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program, which has an aggressive early detection approach.

Veda N Giri, MD, I joined the staff of Fox Chase in 2004. Since that time, I have been named the director of the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program. I was appointed to the National Institutes of Health Prostate Cancer Genetics PDQ Editorial Board. At Fox Chase, I am an active member of the IRB (Institutional Review Board) as well as the Executive Steering Committee.

No "race specific" differences in PSA levels were found when race was measured using genetic markers of ancestry or reported by participants. The researchers subsequently analyzed men with a PSA between 1.5 to 4 ng/mL, and who had at least one follow-up visit. They found that among men with a family history of prostate cancer, PSA levels had the same predictive value whether the men were Caucasian or African-American. These findings are unique in that typically men are not recommended for a prostate biopsy until their PSA levels rise above 4 ng/mL. Larger studies with longer follow-up are needed to confirm these findings.

"African-American men and men with a family history of prostate cancer should be encouraged to participate in early detection studies to define personalized screening strategies that may diagnose prostate cancer at a curable point," said Giri. ###

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes more than 28,000 basic, translational and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and 80 other countries.

AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment and patient care.

AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its most recent publication and its sixth major journal, Cancer Prevention Research, is dedicated exclusively to cancer prevention, from preclinical research to clinical trials. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors and their families, patient advocates, physicians and scientists. CR provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship and advocacy.

Contact: Jeremy Moore Jeremy.moore@aacr.org 267-646-0557 American Association for Cancer Research

Study finds recession associated with increases in minority victims of crime

The victimization of both female and male blacks and Latinos increases during or after periods of economic recession, according to a study by researchers Karen Heimer of the University of Iowa and Janet Lauritsen of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The study was presented Sunday, Feb. 15, at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago. The study is the first of its kind to estimate trends in serious, non-lethal, violent victimization for non-Latino white, non-Latino black, and Latino males and females using data from the 1973-2005 National Crime Victimization Surveys, according to Lauritsen and Heimer.

"The findings offer new empirical evidence regarding the similarities and differences in risks of serious non-lethal violent victimization across race ethnic-gender groups over time," Heimer said.

Karen Heimer Janet L. Lauritsen

"Minorities experience substantially higher rates of violent victimization than non-Latino whites in the United States," she said. "Our study shows that the higher rates of poverty, urban residence and differential age distributions of non-Latino blacks and Latinos help to explain these groups' higher victimization rates. Moreover, our study examines data from the early 1970s to the present and documents an association between economic downturn and increases in victimization rates among minorities over this period." Heimer said that the findings will be important for police and criminal justice policy-makers, as well as providers of services to victims of crime, who may be concerned about the potential consequences of our current recession for crime and victimization. Lauritsen and Heimer's talk, titled "Long-Term Trends in Exposure to Serious Violent Crime by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender," was part of a AAAS session on "Race, Ethnicity and Violent Crime." ###

Karen Heimer is professor in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Sociology and is jointly appointed in the Public Policy Center. She earned her doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her major areas of interest are victimization, gender, criminology, and criminal punishment. She is currently conducting research on trends in violence against women, women's crime, and race and gender differences in imprisonment in the United States. Her book (co-edited with Candace Kruttschnitt), "Gender and Crime: Patterns of Victimization and Offending," was published by New York University Press in 2006.

STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa News Services, 300 Plaza Centre One, Suite 371, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-2500

MEDIA CONTACT: Gary Galluzzo, writer, 319-384-0009, gary-galluzzo@uiowa.edu

Contact: Gary Galluzzo gary-galluzzo@uiowa.edu 319-384-0009 University of Iowa

US Civil War illustrates costs, benefits of diversity, say UCLA economists

Book finds loyalty, sacrifice highest among soldiers of similar background

Diversity is a double-edged sword, making individuals less likely to be altruistic than they might be in a more homogeneous setting but also inspiring them to scale new intellectual heights and to explore new horizons, argue two UCLA economists in a new book.

"People enjoy being around people they can relate to, and they are uncomfortable with diversity," said Matthew Kahn, a co-author of "Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War," which will be published Jan. 21 by Princeton University Press. "But even though people don't like being exposed to people who are different, they benefit from the experience in the long run. They learn the most from those who are different."

The 26th U.S. Colored Volunteer Infantry on parade, Camp William Penn, Pa., 1865. 165-C-692. Pictures of the Civil War. Select Audiovisual Records, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408.

While recent research into lower rates of volunteerism and lack of taxpayer support for local projects in diverse communities has reached similar conclusions, the latest findings are based on a surprising set of subjects: 41,000 soldiers who served in the U.S. Civil War between 1861 and 1865. "Union soldiers, whether in prison camps or in the field, were the most loyal to men who looked like themselves — of the same ethnicity and occupation, from the same state or hometown, or of the same age or related by blood," said co-author Dora L. Costa, a UCLA economics professor.

"We believe that by going back so far in time we're getting at an effect that's universal. This reaction to diversity may be hardwired into us."

Curious about the forces that motivate individuals to acts of heroism, Costa and Kahn set out to mine millions of records on Union soldiers that have been gathered since 1991 into a database funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Tracing enlisted men throughout their tour of duty and into retirement, the Union Army Dataset merges official Union records with now-public census data between 1840 and 1910, essentially providing a cradle-to-the-grave look at the soldiers. Details include a soldier's original economic status, degree of literacy and hometown; his military record, including whether he deserted or ended up in prisoner of war camps and how he fared there; and his eventual residence, livelihood, economic status and degree of literacy.

The researchers then subjected these variables to the same sort of statistical analysis as social scientists who conduct research on living subjects in experimental conditions. The results, insist the UCLA team, are just as valid — and possibly even more trustworthy — than glimpses into human behavior gleaned from laboratory experiments.

"Unlike university laboratory researchers, we examined life-or-death choices," Costa said. "We could never orchestrate an experimental exercise with such high stakes. These are decisions that really mattered to people. As a result, they paid a lot of attention to their decisions, and those decisions reflect profound truths."

Men who served in war companies with men who shared similar characteristics — a common religion, race, ethnic group, socioeconomic status, hometown or even plantation — behaved markedly differently from their counterparts in more diverse companies. For starters, they had much lower desertion rates than the norm of one desertion per 10 Union soldiers. Union soldiers who served alongside men from the same occupations deserted at one-third the rate of counterparts in more diverse companies, as did former slaves who served with former slaves from the same plantation.

"Economic theory says you would look out for your own welfare," Kahn said. "Yet we kept seeing all these very moving examples of people wanting to sacrifice for others."

And the absence of diversity actually outranked other potential sources of loyalty. Costa and Kahn expected to find that company morale or commitment to the cause played as big if not a bigger role in keeping a soldier on the battlefield. Yet they found that companies with the lowest amount of diversity — such as companies in which friends, relatives or neighbors served together — had the lowest desertion rates. The least diverse companies had one-third fewer desertions than more diverse companies with high morale or strong ideological commitments.

"This was one of the most ideological wars in U.S. history," Costa said. "If we find that serving with similar people or buddies matter the most here, then we know the effect is big, and in fact, that's what we found. Even when the ideological stakes are huge, it's serving alongside comrades that keeps you in the war — not commitment to cause."

In addition to inspiring enlistees to persevere, peers also proved important to surviving such grim prisoner of war camps as Andersonville, a Confederate death trap that claimed the lives of close to 40 percent of its captives. Survival rates for Union soldiers born in Ireland, for instance, improved only from 60 percent to 64 percent if they were incarcerated with 15 comrades from their original company, Costa and Kahn found. But the soldiers' survival rates shot up to 90 percent when those 15 comrades were not only from the same company but were also fellow Irish immigrants.

"We believe that your comrades would help you get healthy if you got sick and share their food rations," Kahn said. "So in P.O.W. camps, diversity actually turned out to be a bad thing. It hindered survival rates."

But diversity was not without its benefits. Costa and Kahn focused on three separate kinds of African American troops: troops that consisted primarily of freed slaves, troops that consisted primarily of freemen (African Americans who were not born into slavery) and troops that mixed both kinds of African American enlistees.

While companies with both former slaves and freemen had higher desertion rates than units that consisted primarily of one group or the other, former slaves in the diverse companies learned to write at higher rates than their counterparts in more homogenous units, Costa and Kahn found. In companies comprised almost exclusively former slaves, only 16 percent of soldiers learned to write during their tour of duty. That number nearly doubled in companies in which former slaves mixed with freemen.

"For former slaves who had been prevented from learning to read and write in slavery, diverse companies were almost like a job training program, preparing them for improved economic opportunities down the line," Kahn said.

In addition to being more likely to learn to literacy skills, former slaves in diverse companies also were more likely than their counterparts in more uniform companies to change their slave names, the researchers found.

"Adopting a new name was a measure of taking on the identity of a free person," Costa said. "These former slaves started to see themselves differently as a result of the more expanded horizons of the men with whom they served."

African American soldiers from diverse companies also were much more likely than their counterparts to move away from home after the war. This was especially the case among illiterate soldiers for whom word of mouth was their primary source of information. The economists found that for every 10 percentage-point increase in comrades who hailed from a particular state different than the home state of an illiterate solider, the likelihood of that illiterate soldier ultimately relocating to that state jumped by more than 30 percent.

"We call this 'the Zagat Guide effect,'" Kahn said. "So if we're in the same company, and I'm from New Jersey, you are more likely to move to New Jersey after the war. We believe that I taught you about the benefits of New Jersey. Serving in a diverse unit helped open horizons for men who had previously enjoyed no mobility whatsoever."

"Heroes and Cowards" represents the most extensive use to date of Civil War data amassed by the University of Chicago and Brigham Young University under the direction of Nobel laureate economist Robert Fogel. For the past decade, Costa has been second-in-command on the unparalleled NIH-funded project.

Compiled from records in the National Archives, the Union Army Dataset focuses on Union rather than Confederate records because of the North's famously generous medical benefits for veterans, the authors explained. The most widespread form of assistance to the elderly before the advent of Social Security, these benefits ultimately extended to 90 percent of Union Army veterans. Records for these benefits allow researchers to track the health, whereabouts and other outcomes of Union veterans into old age and to link them to census data for the men, which in turn revealed even more information.

After losing the war, Confederate states offered benefits to veterans on a state-by-state basis, and they did so only when they could afford them, the authors explained. With the South's financial collapse following the war, many Confederate veterans did not receive medical benefits, confounding any attempt to track them through public documents as they aged.

"Confederate records just aren't as comprehensive or useful for this kind of analysis as the Union records," Costa said.

The confluence of increased privacy protections on medical, military and census data and the replacement of a draft armed forces with a voluntary one make military records from later U.S. conflicts less valuable for research purposes than the Civil War documents, the authors contend.

"This material is really a treasure trove," Costa said. "The Union records provide an awesome laboratory for studying human behavior that doesn't exist anywhere else and can't exist again." ###

UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer more than 323 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Four alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Contact: Meg Sullivan msullivan@support.ucla.edu 310-825-1046 University of California - Los Angeles

New study finds blacks still lag in obtaining total knee replacements for arthritis

ATLANTA, Feb. 19, 2009 – A new study released today found blacks remain less likely than whites to undergo total knee replacement, an important intervention for reducing pain and improving physical function among those with disabling knee osteoarthritis. The study also found total knee replacements are increasing substantially in both populations. According to the Arthritis Foundation, the research underscores the need for healthcare providers and people of all races to take proactive measures in preventing and managing the disease.

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, used Medicare claims data from 2000 to 2006 to estimate the national and state-specific total knee replacements for blacks and whites among U.S. adults aged 65 and older.

Patience Hayock White, MD, MA. Chief Public Health Officer Patience White, M.D., is the chief public health officer of the Arthritis Foundation. In addition to her work at the national office of the Arthritis Foundation, she also is a professor of medicine and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The study found that among Medicare enrollees, the prevalence of total knee replacements increased by 58 percent overall. Despite the substantial increase in the rates of total knee replacements for both populations, total knee replacements among blacks was 37 percent lower than for whites in 2000, and remained virtually unchanged in 2006. In addition, the rates for total knee replacements were lowest among black men and highest among white women. The Importance of Taking Action According to the Arthritis Foundation, most Americans are unaware of the seriousness of arthritis and the impact it can have on their lives. Arthritis is the nation's most common cause of disability and costs the U.S. economy more than $128 billion annually. Knee osteoarthritis, the most frequent form of lower extremity arthritis, contributes to 418,000 knee replacement procedures annually and in 2006 accounted for 496,000 hospital discharges and $19 billion in hospital costs.

"Nearly one in two adults may develop knee osteoarthritis over their lifetime, with an equal risk among blacks and whites," said Patience White, MD, MA, chief public health officer for the Arthritis Foundation. "There are steps Americans can take now to prevent increasing disability from knee osteoarthritis, and if surgery becomes necessary, to better prepare themselves."

Tips for Reducing Knee Pain:

To reduce the pain and disability of arthritis, the Arthritis Foundation recommends the following:

* Understand the myth about physical activity and arthritis. Many people think that physical activity can worsen arthritis pain. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Done appropriately, physical activity can help decrease symptoms of knee osteoarthritis. In addition, physical activity is an important component of weight control and helps maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints. For joint-safe exercise programs, try the Arthritis Foundation's Life Improvement Series land or water exercise programs offered at more than 1,700 locations nationwide.

* Control weight. For those already living with symptoms, losing 15 pounds can cut knee pain in half. Maintaining a healthy weight also can lower a person's risk of osteoarthritis. In fact, one study showed that women who lost as little as 11 pounds halved their risk of developing knee osteoarthritis and its accompanying joint pain.

* Discover techniques to manage your arthritis. Participate in the Arthritis Foundation Self-Help Program, a self-management course that teaches people with arthritis how to manage the pain and challenges that arthritis imposes. The course has been shown to lead to a 40 percent reduction in pain.

* Learn more. Contact your local Arthritis Foundation office or visit www.arthritis.org to learn more about programs offered in your area and to order free educational materials, including literature on arthritis in African Americans. For more actions you can take, visit take control of osteoarthritis (arthritis.org/prevent-osteoarthritis) to get started. ###

About the Arthritis Foundation

The Arthritis Foundation is the leading health organization addressing the needs of some 46 million Americans living with arthritis, the nation's most common cause of disability. Founded in 1948, with headquarters in Atlanta, the Arthritis Foundation has multiple service points located throughout the country.

The Arthritis Foundation is the largest private, not-for-profit contributor to arthritis research in the world, funding more than $400 million in research grants since 1948. The foundation helps individuals take control of arthritis by providing public health education; pursuing public policy and legislation; and conducting evidence-based programs to improve the quality of life for those living with arthritis. Information is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-800-283-7800 or www.arthritis.org.

1 "Weight Loss Reduces the Risk for Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis in Women," David T. Felson, MD, MPH; Yuqing Zhang, MB, MPH; John M. Anthony, BA, BS; Allen Naimark, MD; and Jennifer J. Anderson, PhD, Annals of Internal Medicine, 1992; 116:535 539].

Contact: Carol Galbreath cgalbreath@arthritis.org 404-965-7594 Arthritis Foundation

The liberating effects of losing control

Self-control is one of our most cherished values. We applaud those with the discipline to regulate their appetites and actions, and we try hard to instill this virtue in our children. We celebrate the power of the mind to make hard choices and keep us on course. But is it possible that willpower can sometimes be an obstacle rather than a means to happiness and harmony?

Tufts University psychologists Evan Apfelbaum and Samuel Sommers were intrigued by the notion that too much self-control may indeed have a downside - and that relinquishing some power might be paradoxically tonic, both for individuals and for society.

Evan Paul Apfelbaum

They explored the virtue of powerlessness in the arena of race relations. They figured that well-intentioned people are careful - sometimes hyper-careful - not to say the wrong thing about race in a mixed-race group. Furthermore, they thought that such effortful self-control might actually cause both unease and guarded behavior,

which could in turn be misconstrued as racial prejudice.

To test this, they ran a group of white volunteers through a series of computer-based mental exercises that are so challenging that they temporarily deplete the cognitive reserves needed for discipline. Once they had the volunteers in this compromised state of mind, they put them (and others not so depleted) into a social situation with the potential for racial tension -

Samuel Sommers

they met with either a white or black interviewer and discussed racial diversity.

Afterward, the volunteers rated the interaction for comfort, awkwardness, and enjoyment. In addition, independent judges - both black and white - analyzed the five-minute interactions, commenting on how cautious the volunteers were, how direct in their answers - and how racially prejudiced.

As reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, those who were mentally depleted - that is, those lacking discipline and self-control - found talking about race with a black interviewer much more enjoyable than did those with their self-control intact. That's presumably because they weren't working so hard at monitoring and curbing what they said. What's more, independent black observers found that the powerless volunteers were much more direct and authentic in conversation. And perhaps most striking, blacks saw the less inhibited whites as less prejudiced against blacks. In other words, relinquishing power over oneself appears to thwart over-thinking and "liberate" people for more authentic relationships. ###

For more information about this study, please contact: Evan Apfelbaum (evan.apfelbaum@tufts.edu) or Samuel Sommers (sam.sommers@tufts.edu)

Psychological Science is ranked among the top 10 general psychology journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific Information. For a copy of the article "Liberating Effects of Losing Executive Control: When Regulatory Strategies Turn Maladaptive" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Barbara Isanski at 202-293-9300 or bisanski@psychologicalscience.org

Contact: Barbara Isanski bisanski@psychologicalscience.org WEB: Association for Psychological Science

White patients benefit more than blacks in surviving surgical complications at teaching hospitals

Elderly patients who undergo surgery at teaching-intensive hospitals have better survival rates than at nonteaching hospitals, but these better survival rates apparently occur in white patients, not black patients.

"We found an advantage in surgical outcomes for patients in teaching-intensive hospitals compared to nonteaching hospitals, as we had expected from other studies," said study leader Jeffrey H. Silber, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Outcomes Research at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "What we didn't expect was that better outcomes in teaching hospitals occurred for white patients but not for black patients." Furthermore, he added, the survival advantage from teaching hospitals came from lower death rates after complications (lower rates of a measurement called "failure-to-rescue"), not from lower complication rates.

Jeffrey H. Silber, Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesia, and Health Care Management Director, Center for Outcomes Research, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia PhD, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1990; MD, Johns Hopkins Medical School, 1980; AB, Washington University, St. Louis, 1976

The study appears in the February issue of the Archives of Surgery. The study group analyzed Medicare claims from 4.6 million patients aged 65 to 90 admitted for general, orthopedic and vascular surgery at 3,270 acute care hospitals in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Hospitals were classified as nonteaching hospitals if they had no residents, and teaching hospitals were scaled by their ratio of residents to hospital beds. The researchers measured mortality 30 days after surgery, in-hospital complications and failure-to-rescue, defined as the probability of death following complications. They found that compared to nonteaching hospitals, hospitals with the highest ratio of residents to beds had 15 percent lower mortality after surgery, no difference in complications, and 15 percent lower odds of death after complications (failure-to-rescue).

However, these benefits were observed in white patients, not black patients. These associations were adjusted for patient illness on admission, and adjusting for income level did not change these results. Unlike whites, for black patients, the odds of death, complication and failure to rescue were similar at both teaching and nonteaching hospitals.

Silber's group did not find lower rates of complications in teaching-intensive hospitals. "Overall, the improved survival rates were not because patients were less likely to have complications, but because they were less likely to die from those complications in teaching hospitals," said Silber, who first developed failure-to-rescue as a quality of care measure more than a decade ago. The National Quality Forum subsequently adopted it as a hospital quality indicator.

Black patients displayed higher complication rates than white patients at both teaching and nonteaching hospitals, though there was no difference in complication rates between teaching and nonteaching hospitals for both black or white patients. While white patients at teaching hospitals experienced better survival rates after complications than black patients when compared to nonteaching hospitals, black patients experienced the same survival after complications at both types of hospitals. The researchers found this racial disparity existed not only across different hospitals, but also for white and black patients within the same hospitals.

"We don't yet know why these racial disparities exist in surgical outcomes, but we have some working hypotheses," said Silber. His group offers possible explanations, such as unintentional differences in communication between patients and providers. Also, in previous work, Silber and colleagues found that surgical procedures take longer for black patients than white patients in some hospitals. "That finding raised the question of whether less experienced physicians might be more often operating on black patients," he added.

However, Silber noted, the current study relied on Medicare claims data, not on detailed medical records, so it did not provide specific information on patient care that might shed light on the reasons for the observed racial disparities. "Our findings provide a starting point for further studies of detailed patient care that might shed light on why these disparities exist and how they could be reduced." ###

Funding for the study came from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Science Foundation. Silber's co-authors were from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; the University of Pennsylvania; Veteran's Administration Hospital, Philadelphia; the University of California Davis School of Medicine; Boston University School of Public Health; and the Veteran's Administration Hospital, Boston.

About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking second in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 430-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit www.chop.edu.

Contact: John Ascenzi Ascenzi@email.chop.edu 267-426-6055 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Avoiding secondhand smoke during pregnancy

New study of African-American women shows social factors impact success

San Diego, January 27, 2009 – Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) commonly called secondhand smoke, can harm a developing fetus and may account for complications during pregnancy and birth. It is now known that non-whites experience more adverse pregnancy effects than do whites from smoking and ETS exposure. In an article published in the March 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers examined whether black, non-smoking women were able to avoid ETS exposure early in pregnancy and the social contextual factors that affected their success in avoiding secondhand smoke.

This study was conducted by investigators from The George Washington University Medical Center School of Public Health & Health Services, Children's National Medical Center, RTI International, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Data were collected from 1044 women as part of a randomized, multiple–risk behavior intervention trial that addressed four risks for adverse pregnancy outcomes: cigarette smoking, ETS exposure, depression and intimate partner violence (IPV). In this study, the investigators analyzed data from 450 non-smokers who reported having partners, friends, household or family members who smoked. Demographic factors such as age, education, marital status and household income were collected, as was reproductive history information. Attitudes about being pregnant were assessed, as were mental health-related items such as depression symptoms and alcohol or illicit drug use.

Interpersonal factors included having a current partner, the father's desire to have the baby and the incidence of IPV either before or during pregnancy.

Direct ETS exposure factors such as smoking by others in the household, household smoking bans, perceived support from significant others to avoid secondhand smoke and perceived harmfulness of ETS exposure to the baby's health were also measured. To accurately determine ETS exposure, cotinine levels in the mother's saliva were measured. Cotinine is a widely accepted biomarker for tobacco exposure.

Twenty-seven percent of pregnant nonsmokers were confirmed as ETS avoiders. The odds of ETS avoidance were increased among women who reported household smoking bans, reported the father wanted the baby and where no/few family members/friends smoked. The odds were decreased among women who had a current partner, reported any intimate partner violence during pregnancy and reported little social support to prevent ETS exposure.

Writing in the article, Susan Michele Blake, PhD, The George Washington University Medical Center, School of Public Health and Health Services, states, "Results highlight the importance of comprehensive prenatal screening to identify a woman's psychosocial and behavioral risks. Before addressing ETS exposure, it is important to gain a complete understanding of the social context of a woman's pregnancy. While providing behavioral counseling and skills-based interventions, it is important to consider other factors that could exacerbate risks for IPV and poor pregnancy outcomes." ###

The article is "Environmental Tobacco Smoke Avoidance Among Pregnant African-American Nonsmokers" by Susan M. Blake, PhD; Kennan D. Murray, MPH; M. Nabil El-Khorazaty, PhD; Marie G. Gantz, PhD; Michele Kiely, DrPH; Dana Best, MD, MPH; Jill G. Joseph, MD, PhD; and Ayman A.E. El- Mohandes, MD. It appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 36, Issue 3 (March 2009) published by Elsevier.

Contact: AJPM Editorial Office eAJPM@ucsd.edu 858-457-7292 Elsevier Health Sciences

The Obama effect: Researchers cite President's role in reducing racism

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- President Obama spurred a dramatic change in the way whites think about African-Americans before he had even set foot in the Oval Office, according to a new study.

Florida State University Psychology Professor E. Ashby Plant and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Patricia Devine have documented a decrease in racial prejudice during the Fall 2008 period between the Democratic Party's nomination of Barack Obama and the Nov. 4 election. They call it the Obama Effect.

"The unprecedented drop in implicit bias observed in our studies indicates that the impact of Obama's historic campaign went beyond his winning the election," the researchers wrote in a paper outlining the study's results that has not yet been published.

"The fact that close to a quarter of our participants listed Obama indicates that he had permeated many people's consciousness to the point that he was highly accessible." Ashby Plant, Florida State University Department of Psychology.

"It appears to have produced a fundamental change in at least the minds of the American public. Although the full impact of this historic election will play out over time, we are encouraged by the early returns." About 300 non-black (white, Asian or Hispanic) college students in Wisconsin and Florida participated in a variety of experiments and surveys designed to measure stereotyping and implicit prejudice -- that is, the kind of prejudice that is typically described as "automatic" or "knee-jerk" and, although not directly stated, can influence people's behavior. The researchers found that 51 percent of the participants demonstrated automatic preferences for white people. The others had no preference or preferred blacks.

This is significant because previous research, even Plant's own studies conducted on the same college campuses, typically has found that about 80 percent of white people demonstrate an automatic preference for other whites.

The researchers suspected that the dramatic change could be attributed to exposure to Obama during his presidential campaign and sought to find out if there was indeed, a connection. To do so, they asked participants what comes to mind when they think of African-Americans and what they anticipated would come to mind for others when they think of African-Americans. Participants listed a range of responses, including traits, physical characteristics, food items and people. Almost 22 percent listed Obama on at least one list, and 50 percent named at least one other positive exemplar such as Martin Luther King Jr.

"The fact that close to a quarter of our participants listed Obama indicates that he had permeated many people's consciousness to the point that he was highly accessible," Plant said. "We were able to demonstrate that the accessibility of positive exemplars in people's minds was related to their degree of implicit bias."

What's more: Those who had low levels of implicit prejudice were quick to make an association between race and government -- a connection the researchers believe is directly attributable to Obama. In this experiment, participants were exposed to the word "black" on a computer screen for 55 milliseconds. Although the exposure was too brief for conscious processing, these participants quickly selected government-related words such as president, election or senator rather than neutral words in a lexical decision task.

Although researchers found a decrease in stereotyping of blacks, it is still notable that 51 percent demonstrated a bias against blacks, Plant said.

"Our findings suggest that these people are less likely to have positive exemplars and words related to Obama's campaign come to mind when they think of black people," Plant said. "However, it is not clear why they responded this way. It is possible they were less exposed to the campaign media blitz. Alternatively, the strength and stability of their racial attitudes may have resulted in a resistance to change."

The researchers noted that the longevity of the effects is unclear, and it's also not known whether the positive impact of the exposure to Obama will continue. The success of his presidency may have implications for his future role as an exemplar.

"If his presidency is highly successful, he would activate positive traits, thoughts and feelings for most people," the researchers said. "However, the result may be less positive should his presidency prove to be less successful." ###

Plant and Devine's research team included FSU doctoral students Corey Columb, Saul L. Miller, Joanna Goplen and B. Michelle Peruche and UW-Madison doctoral student William T.L. Cox. The study was funded in part by a National Science Foundation grant.

Contact: E. Ashby Plant plant@psy.fsu.edu 850-644-5533 Florida State University

Black women with uterine cancers more likely to die than white patients

Black women with cancers of the uterus are less likely to survive the disease than white women, and relatively little progress has been made over the past two decades to narrow this racial difference. That is the conclusion of a new study published in the March 15, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

While previous research has shown that black women are more likely to die from uterine cancers than their white counterparts, little is known about the factors involved in this discrepancy. In addition, studies have not looked at whether efforts to provide equal treatment to all patients have lessened this disparity in recent years.

To investigate the issue, Dr. Jason Wright, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and colleagues studied the clinical data of 80,915 patients, 7 percent of whom were black, who were documented to have uterine cancer between 1988 and 2004 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Database. The investigators divided the data into three groups based on when women were diagnosed: 1988-1993, 1994-1998, and 1999-2004.

The researchers found that black patients were significantly younger and had more advanced and more aggressive tumors than white women. Advanced cancers (stage III/IV) occurred in 27 percent of blacks between 1988 and 1993 and in 28 percent from 1999 to 2004. The corresponding figures for white women were 14 percent from 1988 to 1993 and 17 percent from 1999 to 2004.

Overall, black women were 60 percent more likely to die from their tumors than white women, and for each of the three time periods, survival was worse for blacks than for whites.

Dr. Wright and his team also found that over time, the incidence of serous tumors and clear cell tumors (two aggressive types of cancer) increased and the use of radiation decreased for both races. Lymph node dissection was performed to determine tumor stage more commonly in both races in recent years, and its use was well matched between the two groups (45 percent of blacks and 48 percent of whites).

The investigators note that differences in tumor characteristics and inequalities in care cannot completely explain the survival disparity between races found in this study. Biological differences might also play a role. Racial differences in risk factors such as obesity, medical comorbidities, and estrogen use have also been proposed as contributing to observed racial disparities in uterine cancer survival. ###

The authors of the study conclude that further work to delineate the factors that impair survival in black women with uterine cancers is clearly needed.

Article: "Racial disparities for uterine corpus tumors: changes in clinical characteristics and treatment over time." Jason D. Wright, Jessica Fiorelli, Peter B. Schiff, William M. Burke, Amanda L. Kansler, Carmel J. Cohen, and Thomas J. Herzog. CANCER; Published Online: February 09, 2009 (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.24160); Print Issue Date: March 15, 2009.

Contact: David Sampson david.sampson@cancer.org. Web: American Cancer Society

Faces and race, A new tool to blunt racial bias

A new tool to blunt racial bias.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — There may be a simple way to address racial bias: Help people improve their ability to distinguish between faces of individuals of a different race.

Brown University and University of Victoria researchers learned this through a new measurement system and protocol they developed to train Caucasian subjects to recognize different African American faces. Their efforts are summed up in "Perceptual Other-Race Training Reduces Implicit Racial Bias," a study to be published Jan. 21, 2009, in PLoS ONE, the online, peer-reviewed journal from the Public Library of Science.

Caption: New research suggests that training people to recognize facial differences among individuals of other races may blunt the effect of racial bias. Credit: VizCogLab, University of Victoria. Usage Restrictions: None.

"The idea is this that this sort of perceptual training gives you a new tool to address the kinds of biases people show unconsciously and may not even be aware they have," said Michael J. Tarr, a Brown cognitive neuroscientist and a senior author of the paper. "There is a strong connection between the way we perceive and categorize the world and the way we end up making stereotypes and generalizations about social entities." The hope is that the researchers' training program could someday be used to train anyone who comes into contact with other races — police officers, social workers or immigration officials, said Tarr, the Sidney A. and Dorothea Doctors Fox Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and a professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown. The research is the product of a wide collaboration. Sophie Lebrecht, a third-year Ph.D student in the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences and a member of Tarr's lab, is the study's lead author. Jim Tanaka, a professor at the University of Victoria and Lara Pierce, a graduate student at McGill University, collaborated on the research.

Lebrecht was interested in the interaction of visual processing with other cognitive functions such as emotion or social processing. She came up with the idea for the project with Tarr's encouragement.

Researchers used 20 Caucasian subjects for the overall study, which incorporated a measurement developed at Brown and dubbed the Affective Lexical Priming Score (ALPS). The ALPS measure is similar to, and builds on, a test developed at Harvard University known as the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which helps to identify unconscious social biases.

The ALPS measurement involved first showing each subject a series of pictures of different races, such as African American and Caucasian faces. All the faces were shown in black and white, so subjects would focus on facial features rather than skin color.

On each ALPS trial, each test subject was shown a picture of a face, which then disappeared. The test subject then saw a word that could be real or nonsense — "tree" or "malk," for example — and had to decide whether the word was a real word or nonsense word. Real words could imply something positive or negative.

Lebrecht found that prior to training, subjects more quickly responded if the word was negative and followed an African-American face. Subjects responded more slowly if the word was positive and followed an African-American face.

After using the ALPS to measure each subjects' implicit racial bias, the subjects took part in about 10 hours of facial recognition training. Half learned to tell apart individual African-American faces and half learned simply to tell whether the faces were African-American or not.

The training worked on a number of levels. Individual subjects improved their ability to tell the difference between seperate Africa-American faces. Those same subjects who improved that ability also showed the greatest reduction in their implicit racial bias as measured by the ALPS system. Their positive associations with African-American faces increased and they had fewer negative associations with African-American faces.

While the researchers are not claiming they can eliminate racial bias, they suggest that teaching people to tell the difference better between individual faces of a different race is at least one way to help reduce that bias.

Lebrecht said that developing a system that teaches people to make those distinctions should be helpful in reducing generalizations based on social stereotypes.

"If you give people the tools to start individuating, maybe they will make more individual (rather than stereotypical) attributions," she said. ###

Funding for the study came from the Perceptual Expertise Network, a collaborative award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation; the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center at the University of California–San Diego; the National Science Foundation, a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada award; and a Brown University National Eye Institute training grant (the National Institutes of Health).

Contact: Mark Hollmer Mark_Hollmer@brown.edu 401-863-1862 Brown University

African-Americans Aware and Accepting, but Often Do Not Receive, the HPV Vaccine

CAREFREE, A.Z. - Although only 25 percent of eligible African-American adolescents have received the HPV vaccine, a new survey presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities, suggests they have a positive view of the treatment and might respond to more education.

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Health is funding research to develop ways to increase the rate of HPV vaccination among those at highest risk. HPV vaccination prevents cervical cancer by inoculating against the human papillomavirus.

"The consensus among those surveyed in our study was that it would be a good, beneficial option," said Ian Frank, M.D., professor of medicine in the Infectious Diseases Division of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ian Frank, M.D. Dr. Frank’s main area of research is the use of antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV infection. He has been studying novel approaches to control HIV replication, including the use of antiretroviral treatment interruption and vaccines to augment the HIV specific immune responses as adjuctive HIV therapy. He is also studying the etiologies of the complications of long-term antiretroviral treatment, including hyperlipidemia and insulin resistance.

The HPV vaccine, approved for use in the United States as Gardasil and manufactured by Merck and Co., has been shrouded in controversy since it was released in June 2006. Frank said the controversies break down into four basic areas. Following approval, Merck pushed for mandatory vaccination, which is generally opposed by citizens in the United States who believe health care decisions should not be forced. Others were concerned about the long-term efficacy of the vaccine or its possible side effects. Most famously, some groups insisted that if adolescents were aware that they could inoculate themselves against the human papillomavirus, which is spread through sexual contact, they would be more likely to have early sexual relations. "I doubt that whether or not she is at risk for cervical cancer is on an adolescent's mind in the heat of the moment," said Frank.

Frank said the African-Americans who participated in the survey conducted by his research group were aware of these controversies, but they did not outweigh their positive views of the vaccine as an option.

Researchers surveyed 71 females for the study; 94 percent were African-American and the mean age was 15.3 years. Approximately 60 percent of them had had their first sexual encounter when they were 14 years old.

Of those who had not received the vaccine, 43.9 percent said they were very likely or likely to do so soon. A majority believed it was a "good" or "very good" idea and they generally viewed the vaccine as "safe," "effective" and a "wise choice."

Forty-five caregivers of adolescents also participated in the study, all of whom were African-American, 94 percent were female and 47.9 percent had a high school diploma.

The caregivers agreed that the vaccine was "safe," "effective" and a "wise choice," but two-thirds of them could not recall their health care provider ever mentioning the HPV vaccine.

"Many of these caregivers, most of whom were women, reported feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of raising an adolescent girl, but they wanted to protect their daughters from health and emotional risks," said Frank. "This suggests they would respond positively to an increased effort to inoculate." ###

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes more than 28,000 basic, translational and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and 80 other countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants.

The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment and patient care. The AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

The AACR's most recent publication and its sixth major journal, Cancer Prevention Research, is dedicated exclusively to cancer prevention, from preclinical research to clinical trials. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors and their families, patient advocates, physicians and scientists. CR provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship and advocacy.

Contact: Jeremy Moore Jeremy.moore@aacr.org 267-646-0557 American Association for Cancer Research